STERLING – In a lot of high school golf dual meets, you see the same basic format. One team's two best players will be in a playing group with the other team's two best players, while another group will feature each teams' third- and fourth-best golfers.
For Newman Central Catholic High School's boys golf team this season, that usually means one playing group with senior Blake Wolfe and sophomore Kyle Wolfe.
When the season began, knowing that some brothers play well together and others don't, Comets coach Kevin Knack approached Blake to make sure it would work out having the two of them in a pairing.
"He said 'Do you want to play with your brother?' and I said 'I wouldn't trade it for the world,'" Blake said. "I cherish every single time we would show up to the golf course and we got our cards and it said we were going off together. It doesn't get any cooler than that."
Having his brother there certainly worked out for Kyle Wolfe. The Comets sophomore who averaged a 41 per nine holes and took sixth at the sectional is the 2020 Sauk Valley Media boys golfer of the year.
And for most of the season, he was walking alongside his brother every step of the way.
"I feel like it helps us both," Kyle said. "We can talk over strategy, we can talk over holes that we wouldn't normally be able to do otherwise. He's my older brother. We play golf all the time on the weekends. I love having his company at meets. You're still out there on a Tuesday afternoon after school and playing to have fun."
In his sophomore leader, Knack saw a steadiness on the course.
"He's pretty much a conservative golfer," Knack said. "He doesn't like to take a lot of chances. He likes to keep the ball in play and get on the green and let his chipping and putting take care of the score."
Chipping and putting was something that would often trip him up last year as a freshman, and it was something he worked hard on this season, Kyle said.
In Kyle, Blake sees a golfer who has always been dedicated in everything that he does, someone whose sound fundamentals will see him through just about anything on the course.
"When you play with him, it doesn't matter how bad he's playing, he always keeps the pedal on," Blake said. "Even from an early age, he's always had a smooth swing and a smooth tempo, which a lot of people struggle with. You feel like you've got to hit the ball hard to go far. Kyle's always had a really smooth swing and smooth tempo and always kept the ball in play."
Kyle's sophomore season opened strong: he took medalist honors with a 40 at Deer Valley on Aug. 13 in a triangular with Morrison and Rock Falls, then he followed that with a 41 at Valley View the following week.
The first big invitational of the season came at Rock Falls in early September, where he shot a 78 fueled by a strong short game, and Newman took first place.
"I knew coming out this year that I was going to cherish every moment getting to play with him," Blake said. "This being my senior year, we're probably not going to get to compete again together. I knew from the get-go that he and I were going to do something cool together."
It was something the brothers talked about ever since Blake got into high school. When Blake was a sophomore in 2018, he played in the state meet when a Comets squad featuring Josh Payan,Ty Brockman, Jacob Donald, Jacob Rude and Cody Britt qualified as a team. Blake Wolfe shot an 85 at the rain-shortened event, finishing 45th as an individual.
They missed out on a chance to play together at state in 2019, as Newman finished seventh as a team in the Class 1A Freeport Sectional, where Blake shot an 89 and Kyle, then a freshman, shot a 97.
What cost them their second chance to do it was a global pandemic, wiping out the state meet entirely in 2020 and bringing everyone's season to a halt at the Class 1A St. Bede Sectional at Spring Creek.
"We had always talked about the two of us one day getting to go to state," Blake said. "Obviously with COVID, we didn't get to go to state, but we did get to qualify. We did well at regionals, we make it past the sectional, and we would have qualified for state under normal circumstances."
If that sectional was to be the end of their last season of golf together, they went out with a flourish. Newman would have just missed qualifying for state as a team. as three teams get out of the sectional in a normal year and Newman tied for third with Chicago Latin, who beat out the Comets in a tiebreaker. But the Wolfe family would have been well represented, with Kyle claiming sixth with an 82. Blake was just three strokes behind his brother.
In a normal year, golfers would go into a regional and sectional having already played in weekend invitationals and conference meets. This season, teams filled their scheduled mainly with duals and triangulars.
"Going to regionals, and it being our first big tournament of the season, that added some nerves to it," Kyle said. "When throughout the season you usually get those weekend tournaments and you get the opportunity to compete against a lot of those teams you're going to compete against in regionals, it helps to calm the nerves and see where I'm at and my teammates to see where they're at.
"For me [at regionals], it was just keeping the same mindset that I had all year. At the first tee, I get up there and I'm thinking fundamentals. My swing is good enough to get me here, and I just have to repeat and repeat."
It was something that tripped him up a lot as a freshman. It's one of the areas where he had to work as a sophomore.
"I've really just tried to focus, calm my nerves, and just try to focus on my game and what I'm doing, and not worry about the scores or what my opponents are doing," he said.
For Kyle, there are still places where he sees a chance to improve.
"I'm still working on my iron game and I'm working on straightening out my driver some," he said. "There's still plenty of work to do on my short game."